Sunday Preview

A thrilling derby is in store for the lunchtime kick-off tomorrow, Sunday February 10.
While the first talking point will be whether the Man City fans will respect the minutes silence for the victims of the Munich air crash, the game itself should be entertaining.
Benjani’s confession that he didn’t want to leave Portsmouth will probably not have endeared him to the City fans. A goal at Old Trafford may go some way to changing that.

Elano’s strike settled the first derby of the season. Then, Man City were playing free-flowing, entertaining football. Now, Eriksson’s boys have gone slightly dull with a couple of exceptions in Martin Petrov and their enthusiastic as puppies defenders Richard Dunne and Micah Richards.
Man United know that Blackburn will be a big test for Arsenal on Monday and going back to the top of the table will certainly help to up the pressure on Wenger’s team who will be without several first-choice players at the Emirates.
The good news about Benjani signing is that viewers might be spared Darius ‘I’ll run and run and run’ Vassell. The bad news is it probably won’t change the fact that City will be happy with a 0-0 draw.
Prediction: Man United 2 Man City 0

CHELSEA V LIVERPOOL

(Yes that is Anelka. No it was not taken yesterday.)

Fingers crossed the Manchester derby is exciting because the chances of an entertaining game here are minimal. Torres is out for Liverpool. Drogba is out for Chelsea. Lampard may return. Mascherano may play, depending on how jet-lagged he is.
These games tend to be as dull as dishwater and the mighty return of Dirk Kuyt means Liverpool are unlikely to score and thus 0-0 would seem a possibility.

Nicholas Anelka has four goals in nine games against Liverpool since leaving Anfield and his recent confession that Liverpool’s results are the first he looks for emphasises the esteem he still holds for tomorrow’s opponents. However, he may not want to look out for their result tomorrow evening for two reasons: (1) He’ll have just played against them and will more than likely know the result unless he can’t bear to watch. (2) Liverpool are likely to lose.

Prediction: Chelsea 1 Liverpool 1 (yes I know I just said Liverpool are likely to lose but who would ever go against a draw in this fixture? Be serious….